If you haven't guessed I've been a little more interested in the stock market lately. I've been letting myself play with a small amount of money with the goal being shortish term investments (1-30 days) with mild returns (if I walk with $50 in my pocket it was a REALLY good transaction). I am trading at Schwab since thats where I bank/invest anyway so it's $9/trade. I'll try to document my wins and losses here, feel free to join in. I like keeping up with the market a little so I feel like I'm not a dumbass when we talk to our financial planner.

This morning I was liquid with $500 to spend so I bought AAPL, I wish I had gotten up earlier, frankly.

So as of this writing up I'm up, but not the $18 needed to break even after fees.

I agree it's not overly easy to even break even on most 30 day swings, making $50 would mean I made one helluva lucky guess. I have more than broken even ($4.xx, $7.xx) on the last two months including fees, but I certainly don't expect to make much (if any) averaged over a 12 month period.